My dad was born and raised in Bermondsey, so I might show him those pictures. As with Robgul, their arrival was linked to the Hugenots, but also with the river/docks. I'd have to look it up on the family tree my dad produces, but I think either his grandfather, or perhaps great grandfather was a ship's victualler.
Acorn Walk was the address for my dad, now gentrified/yuppified to the degree he could never live there again. Back in the early 90's he took me and my mum on a tour of various bits of London, including that area, pointing out one of the roads that used to be paved with wooden blocks, that all floated in the floods of the 50's. It's definitely a "past is a foreign country" thing - there is a family story about my uncle in his nice shiny TR4A, being stopped by the local gangster "I'm going up West today, it's your turn to take me".
When we worry about air quality now, it's hard to think that in my dad's lifetime we had smogs where you couldn't see 3 feet in front of you and people were dying by the day.